According to the FBI website, hate is not crime. However, when someone commits a criminal offense that is motivated by bias against religion, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, it becomes a hate crime. The FBI recently released its annual report of hate crimes. Surprisingly, it’s not Muslims who are the biggest target.
Findings of the Report
In 2013, there were about 7,000 incidents of hate crime. This figure came down in 2014 to 6,400. Forty-seven percent of the victims were targets because of racial bias of the offender. Religious hate crimes and crimes motivated by sexual orientation came in next, at 18.6 percent each. The remainder were motivated by ethnicity, gender identity, disability, and gender. Most of the acts, 63.9 percent, were crimes against persons, such as assaults, rapes, murders, or intimidation. Property crimes like vandalism accounted for 35 percent of the total, and the remaining 1.1 percent were societal crimes, such as prostitution or drug offenses.
The good news is that hate crimes were down in 2014 from what was reported in 2013, by 8 percent overall. Hate crimes against Muslims and Muslim institutions unfortunately rose by 14 percent. Although the number of incidents against Jews actually fell by 2.5 percent, surprisingly, Jews are still the most targeted religion. In hate crimes motivated by religious bias:
- Anti-Jewish: 59 percent
- Anti-Islamic: 14 percent
- Anti-Catholic: 6 percent
- Anti-Atheist: 1 percent
- Anti-Other: 12 percent
- Anti-multiple religions: 4 percent
- Anti-Protestant: 4 percent
Problems With the Report
Federal prosecutors were given the authority to prosecute hate crimes under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2009. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program began in 2013, which makes this report fairly new. In the next report, which comes out in 2016, the religious category will be expanded to include all of the religions identified by the U.S. Census and the Pew Research Center.
One issue that critics have with the FBI report is that not all jurisdictions participate. Hawaii, for example, does not report its hate crimes. Only about 86 percent of the law enforcement agencies submit reports to the FBI. Approximately 2,500 agencies do not. This could mean that the numbers are much lower than they actually are.
In addition, some districts transitioned from paper to electronic reporting and dropped the ball. The FBI did not report any murders that targeted Jews in 2014. However, three anti-Jewish murders actually occurred in Kansas during the timeframe. Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr. was convicted of three murders in the greater Kansas City area. According to reports, Miller said he targeted his victims because “he wanted to kill Jewish people before he died.”
Although the three victims were outside Jewish community centers, none of the three were actually Jewish. The reason the victims don’t show up in the 2014 report is because of a paperwork failure, not because they were not Jewish. Because the incident was not reported to the FBI, it could not show up in the data. The FBI spokesperson did say that the crime would have been classified as a hate crime.
Why Are Jews Targeted?
The FBI report makes no suggestions as to why the Jewish community is targeted. Even though World War II ended in the 1940s, this data does show that there is a long way to go. Education is key. The Jewish community is not the enemy. Ignorance and intolerance of the beliefs of others is. Although the Muslim community has been in the news, they are not the only religious group targeted by criminals because of their religion or ethnicity. It’s hoped that the 2015 incidents will be reduced by another 8 percent or greater, but that there are any crimes committed because of religious bias is a crime in itself.